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Wild West Festival rides into town

The Wild West Festival has lost one of its key sponsors, but is not letting this setback get in the way of the state's biggest comedy festival yet.

Transcript

ELIZA BLUE, PRESENTER: Throwing a comedy festival might seem good for a laugh but it's also painful on the hip pocket. Just ask the organisers of Perth's biggest comic event. The Wild West festival is experiencing growing pains. While comedy itself is enjoying a boom the event has lost a key sponsor. But undeterred by the setback, the festival's team's preparing to launch this year's line up, convinced that comedy is on the verge of a new boom.

Jake Sturmer reports.

JAKE STURMER, REPORTER: It's no joke - these are the headquarters of WA's biggest comedy festival.

It's been a hard road for the festival's organiser. Greg Coffey is virtually bank rolling the half a million dollar event on his own.

GREG COFFEY, FESTIVAL ORGANISER: You ever heard of a thing called credit card films? A credit card film is a film that's actually made by using someone's credit card. And in this case it's my credit card.

JAKE STURMER: Things are so tight that Mr Coffey and his small team only receive a token salary, a pittance compared to what they'd earn working for other festivals.

GREG COFFEY: So what you need to do now is put the money into the account.

JAKE STURMER: The loss of a major sponsor is one of the reasons the event is struggling for funds. It moved from Subiaco in 2008 due to low audience numbers. Although its new home in Northbridge is a better fit, the relocation has cost the festival a lucrative grant from the Subiaco council.

GREG COFFEY: Subiaco is great but in Bagot Road where we had our smaller venues there were no cafes open.

JAKE STURMER: The festival does receive some money from LotteryWest and the cities of Stirling and Perth but the organisers are desperate to make the most of whatever else is available.

JO MARSH, PROGRAMMING DIRECTOR: If you just like to hold on one moment and I will get Greg to have a word with you, one moment. It's a legal firm about sponsorship for the festival.

GREG COFFEY: Oh God, um, look, I don't get anything until the festival is complete then if there's a profit, then that's, I get a share of that. I don't think it's ever happened in the three years of Wild West comedy festival.

JAKE STURMER: The hopes of breaking even this year rest on headline acts like Jimeoin, Akmal Saleh, Kitty Flanagan and a host of West Australian acts looking to make the most of the spotlight.

JO MARSH: There's an opportunity for people to see local guys, eastern states guys, international guys and have a really great time while they're doing it.

JAKE STURMER: One of those local guys is Ben Sutton.

BEN SUTTON, WA COMEDIAN: If you're Spiderman in Perth, cause let's face it, it we don't have a particularly strong skyline, you know and the way I see it Spiderman's got one of two options BankWest or St George's outside of that where is going to go?

JAKE STURMER: Industry veterans say more and more comics like Ben are cracking the big time, thanks to the strength of the WA comedy scene.

How is comedy going here in WA?

SAM LONGLEY, WA COMEDIAN: Look, brilliantly. I think that's the only way you can really say it. What Perth has is an incredibly supportive scene of the comedians and also of the people coming along to see comedy.

JAKE STURMER: Sam Longley has been involved in comedy in Australia and overseas for decades, and has witnessed the growth of the scene over the past few years. But why is it becoming more popular?

SAM LONGLEY: Have you ever asked somebody do you, you know, do you like laughing? They are always going to say yes. So I think it is, it's that thing, it's that release from a day to day grind.

JAKE STURMER: Even with the heavy reliance on credit, the festivals organisers are confident the show will go on next year and beyond and Sam Longley believes that's good news for the industry.

SAM LONGLEY: For our talent to be seen they have to move to Melbourne, get on Rove or whatever the now equivalent is and get seen and then Perth audiences go "Oh he's funny, Oh he's from Perth I didn't even know we had a comedy scene in Perth".

So what the Wild West comedy fest is doing is it's taking our natural talent, our natural resources which isn't getting taxed at 40 per cent and it's showing Perth that we have this incredible talent.